Just Rewards
by Capricornus152
Summary: After the alley, Illyria dies and Fred is brought back. SpikeFred.


Just Rewards:

_Takes place Post-Not Fade Away, in the alley._

Illyria fought her way through the remainder of the demons. She glanced at her comrades. They were all alive, or in Spike and Angel's case, _undead_.

A snarling demon leapt towards her and Illyria picked up a metal railing and smacked him across the forehead, splitting it open and letting bright green demon blood spill.

Behind her, a demon spun on his left leg and round-house kicked Illyria into a brick wall. Illyria screamed as she felt pain and darkness consume her body.

&&&

To the demons nearby, they would have seen the blue goddess's body writhe and hear the vertebrae groan like old men and then royal blue sparks, like electricity fizzled out of explode into a mini eruption. Any demons nearby were fried instantly.

Eventually, all the demons were slain and Angel managed to get Gunn to the hospital, just in time. They managed to save him.

That left an unconscious Spike and Illyria.

&&&

Spike groggily awoke and found him lying in the shadows next to the dumpsters outside of The Hyperion. He saw Illyria, her body milling in the brightly coloured blood and corpses of the demons. He grunted with the pain, but then he looked closer at Illyria and his eyes goggled.

She was naked and shivering and her body was its body was its normal creamy colour.

"Fred?" Spike whispered, almost inaudibly into her ear. The body stirred and brown eyes looked up into them.

"Spike?"

Spike was speechless, but he wrapped his duster around Fred's body ad then hugged her tight.

"We thought we lost you."

"I was."

Spike and Fred helped each other to the steps of the Hyperion, avoiding the sunlight.

Fred placed her foot on the door's frame and with amazing strength, kicked it open, smashing the glass into the lobby. They stumbled through and then Spike laid Fred on her back, on one of the couches.

He limped over to the kitchen, opened the fridge, and grabbed a big can of soda and a small bag of nachos, with a bag of blood. He didn't bother checking the cell-by-date of the products and ripped open the bag of blood, drinking its contents down greedily. He cracked open the soda and gently let Fred drink it, until she sat up and began to guzzle it. She then snatched the nachos and ate them, like there was no tomorrow.

"Oh God, it feels so good. Food and drink." Fred gasped. She glanced down and saw that she was naked, except for the leather duster.

"Um, Spike…I'm just going to get changed, okay?"

Spike nodded and Fred ran up the stairs to her room.

&&&

Fred recognised the room, she knew so well. She stripped off the duster and rummaged for some clothes. Since she hadn't eaten in a while, she had slimmed down, so her clothes hung a little baggy. However, baggy was good. Baggy was space. She needed space at the moment.

She put on a pair of dark blue jeans and a long-sleeved scarlet top, which someone had placed in the room. Everything of hers was here. Someone must have moved it here, from her Wolfram & Hart apartment when she "died". Probably Wesley.

Tears sprung from her eyes as the death of Wesley played back in her mind, like a movie.

She lay on her bed and closed her eyes, just to get her head around it all.

&&&

THREE DAYS LATER:

Spike sat around the lobby, waiting for Fred. However, when he heard footsteps, he saw Angel with a patched up Gunn through the door.

Angel sat Gunn down and sighed.

"Back again."

"But not alone." A voice behind them said. They turned and saw a group of the Sunnydale refugees; Willow, Giles, Dawn, Kennedy, Andrew and Faith, along with some young Slayers.

&&&

Dawn rushed forward and hugged Spike tightly. He hugged her back.

"Hey Nibblet."

"So, who's back from Hell, then?"

Spike smirked as everyone filed in. Andrew and Willow carried heavy bags of groceries and supplies.

"Where's Buffy?"

"She's in Rome."

"Then why aren't you?"

"I turned eighteen a couple of months ago, and when I heard, I tagged along."

"What'd Buffy say?"

"The usual. I told her to screw herself." Spike's mouth dropped and Dawn grinned.

"She did! I was there." Willow piped in.

"So what's happened?" Giles asked.

"Hold on...why are you here?" Angel asked.

"Well, we heard that you had just taken down the Black Thorn, so we wanted to come over. Willow and Kennedy came over from Brazil, Dawn stow away from Rome and Faith and I, with some of our up-and-coming Slayers came from Cleveland. Xandet's still in Africa, by the way. So...what has happened here?"

Spike and Angel filled them in on everything, Cordelia's awakening, Fred's death, Wesley's death and the battle.

"Well, looks like we missed out on a lot." Faith said, smoking a cigarette.

"Actually, something big has just happened." Spike said. They all fell silent.

"Illyria is…" Spike began but a voice broke it.

"Dead, but I'm back." Fred said, stepping down the staircase. Everyone gaped, including Angel and Gunn, except for Spike, who smiled at the Fred he knew and loved.

&&&

Over the next few weeks, an agreement was made. The Sunnydale refugees would stay in the hotel, as well as Angel, Gunn, Spike and Fred. Then they could open 'The Sunny Angel Investigations'.

Angel kept his room, while Gunn and Faith who had bonded and begun a proper relationship shared, while Spike and Fred did the same. The baby Slayers had the biggest room. Willow and Kennedy had a room, while Andrew and Dawn, who were good friends now, got rooms next to each other. Giles had a room to himself.

They opened up again and soon they were making money comfortably. Willow did some classes for trainee witches, while Giles, Faith and some slayers started a mini school in the sparring room for people who wanted to learn self-defence. Angel, Spike and Gunn took on cases, with Fred and Dawn as their number #1 researchers.

Andrew simply was their food shopper and assistant researcher.

&&&

SIX MONTHS LATER:

Spike stumbled into his room and felt painful from the job that he, Angel and Gunn had just completed. A nest of Arachno demons under some old dear's house. Luckily, they had saved her and her dog and killed the damn things. There was violent, yellow sludge on his second-best leather duster.

However, he forgot about everything, including the drastic smell of the spider-demon's gunk all his clothes and duster, when he saw Fred, at the balcony, that overlooked Los Angeles.

She was wearing a black tank top and a pair of loose, three-quarter blue jeans. She was barefoot and her hair was in a loose ponytail. She had dyed the blue out, but then she found the exact shade of blue as a hair dye in a store. She bought it and dyed streaks in her hair, so now she had light brown hair with royal blue streaks in it. Everyone said it suited her. She had stolen some of Illyria's strength before she had died, so it helped.

"Hey, Freddi." Spike said. Fred turned around and smiled. She suddenly grimaced as the smell hit her.

"Oh my God, what is that _smell_?"

"Oh right, that's me. I'll just go have a shower." Spike said, sheepishly, heading into the bathroom.

&&&

As the hot water hit Spike's pale and muscularshoulders, he felt a surge of heat burst through his body, from his groin, as the image of Fred played in his mind.

She really was beautiful. Eyes like rich chocolate and hair like toffee, so beautiful that it looked edible. The smell of nachos and citrus shampoo hung around her body, like her heavenly aura. The top she wore accentuated her curves and made her like a goddess, like Aphrodite or Artemis. God, he was always poetic. Well, she was a goddess for a while.

He felt his erection stiffen even more and he tried to stop himself coming right there and then. He managed to restrain himselfand then turned the shower on cold. Bitterly cold, to shake off the heat.

Afterwards, he stepped out in a teal-coloured sweater and black jeans.

Fred was on their double bed and a large pizza box and a brown paper bag were on the sheets. A large chicken pizza and a huge bag of nachos with melted cheese on were inside. Spike sat down and they began to eat. As Spike watched Fred chomp on a handful of delicious nachos, a moment of pure clarity shot into his mind.

&&&

Of all the women in Spike's life, he had strangely given them pastry personas. Not cheesy in a sense, but it was a way of sort of defining them

Drusilla was an almond pastry, nutty and easily broken. Poor Dru, broken such a long time ago.

And Buffy...Buffywas a slice of Black Forest gateau, some many complex layers, wanting sex, but not love and then manipulating him and then denying him. She was so bitter and that was always how he felt after they had made love, even though he "loved" her.

Nibblet was easily a butterfly cake, sickly sweet in her actionsand easily-loved.

But Fred, Fred was a different issue altogether. An entire bakery altogether

&&&

She had seen much before her time. She was pure and strangely strong. Not just in body, but in soul.

Her eyes and hair like chocolate were perfection. She was a cookie…no, no…a brownie. A delicious chocolate chip brownie with a couple of nuts on top.

&&&

"Spike?" Fred asked. He snapped out his faze and saw Fred staring at him, concerned.

"I'm fine."

After eating, Fred stood on the balcony again, with Spike next to her.

"It's a beautiful night." Spike said.

"Why didn't you do anything?" Fred suddenly snapped.

"What?"

"Why didn't you do anything to save me? Why did you let that blue bitch take over me? I was trapped and you walked and fought with her, as if I had never existed!" Fred screamed with venom. Each word cut into Spike like a stake.

"We all thought that we had lost you…we were at a dangerous time…" Spike stumbled with the words.

There was silence. Spike stepped towards Fred with his arms outstretched, trying to hug her.

There was a soft, wet crunch as Fred swung her fist, as Illyria had done before and it connected with Spike's nose. Blood gushed out like a fountain.

Spike wrapped Fred in his arms and held her tight as she pummelled at his broad, smooth chest, before collapsing and weeping gently.

&&&

Fred stopped crying and looked up. She met his bottomless blue eyes. So bottomless and navy, like the ocean.

"I'm sorry, Spike." She said, straightening up. Their eyes met for what seemed like an eternity. The breathtaking blue on the beautiful brown.

Spike wrapped an arm around Fred's waist and slowly, tantalizingly they kissed. It was sweet and passionate and expressed everything they felt.

"Spike! Fred! Giles! Come on the film's about to start!" Kennedy's voice echoed.

Every night, the gang would put a DVD on, in the newly constructed lounge of the hotel, with about ten sofas and a dozen recliners and unwind. Tonight, due to Angel's moaning, they were going to watch _Brief Encounter_.

Spike and Fred broke off their kiss and looked happily at each other. Slowly they linked hands and they went off, facing anything together, even another of Giles' ramblings.

_I love the movie **Brief Encounter**, so I recommend it. _

_FLAMES ACCEPTED, but preferably HAPPY REVUEWS._

_I love you all and God Bless._


End file.
